"Pursue, keep up with, circle round and round your life, as dog does his master's chaise. Do what you love. Know your own bone, gnaw at it, bring it, unearth it, and gnaw it still." --Henry David Thoreau

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Thursday, September 01, 2005

Are you serious?

Like most Americans, I have my mind on New Orleans. Every story coming out of there keeps getting more and more disheartening. While I have no experience in military or search and rescue operations, my frustration is growing as there appears to be no relief. The mayor of the city is moments away from marching those who can walk out of the Superdome down the highway.

And, to make it worse, I just watched Bush's speech about our efforts. Who are his PR people again and why did they okay talking points that spend more time addressing oil pipelines and policies than the thousands of people in the most devastating situation imaginable? This is our leader? He certainly didn't respond to 9/11 by discussing the impact of not having the World Trade Center businesses adding to the bottom line. This is the person who provides vision based on his understanding of the issues? It makes me embarrassed.

All the while during Bush's speech, I am just wishing the man standing to his right would take the lectern and school him in compassion and leadership. I need a president that does more than read a laundry list and stare cocky at the prompter.

I understand what you're saying, and agree that I thought the gasoline talk was a little odd.

However, in the big picture it's pretty trivial. Everyone knows people are dying. There is nothing the President could have said today that would make the suffering decrease. Action, not words, are all that matters at this point.

What gets me is that there seems to have been nothing learned from 9/11. "Communications are out and we have no ability to set up command and control." Those were the same things said back in 2001. Seems the administration is always fighting "the last war." The fact that there is no "national stock-pile" of supplies, or forward capability, no national communication network, or "worst case scenario" thinking is what bothers me (money says they have no contingency for a Cat 5 hurricane hitting Miami, wiping out I-95, South Beach and most of the coast-line, and yet this seems to be a very likely scenario). The disaster response system is very inefficient. That said, what's done is done. Right now, they need to roll in troops, take every city block street by street so there is security so relief workers, supply convoys, and Army Corps of Engineers to work, rescue people (I saw on TV last night that police had to defend their own stations).